PETER ON ELECTION AND OTHER MATTERS

Brian GC Huggett

Election: Eklektos = to pick out, to choose

Election is God’s choice beforehand, of certain individuals to fulfill particular functions in His plan for time. It is based upon the faith of those individuals and not their works.

  1.  The election of Israel in eternity past.

  2.  The election of the Lord Jesus Christ.

  3.  The election of the Church.

1. Israel.

Isaiah 45:4: “For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.”

Matthew 24:24: “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”

Matthew 24:31: “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

The nation Israel came into being through regeneration, i.e., a saving belief in the LORD on the part of Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaac’s son Jacob, with Jacob being renamed Israel and his twelve sons forming the twelve tribes of the nation Israel. Not all Israelites have believed in the LORD, and those who do not believe are doomed to an eternal damnation because of their unbelief, yet there has always been a remnant of belief in the nation. 

Romans Chapters 9 to 11 tells of God’s choice or election of Israel as a nation from which He has chosen – elected – certain peoples to Himself. This election is based on His knowledge of future belief and His decree to have it so. Israel as a nation has been elected to salvation, but not all her people are saved. Israel as a nation will have as its eternal inheritance the “new earth”, but not all Jews will share in that inheritance. Election is based upon faith in Jesus Christ not on the works of the Law.

2. The Election of Jesus Christ

Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.” The Lord is unique; God and man in one person forever.

Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ, became a man and in that act became a servant to God the Father for the purpose of fulfilling the plan of salvation for the human race.

Isaiah 42:1: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring fourth judgment to the Gentiles.”

1 Peter 2:6: “Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.”

3. The election of the Church

All of mankind who have believed in Jesus Christ were elected by God in eternity past before the foundation of the world to a position of eternal life and godliness, of glory and virtue. That virtue which is ours comes only when we are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, which enables us to receive the great and precious promises of the spiritual blessings that are reserved in heaven for us.

Ephesians 1:3-4: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen [elected] us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:”

                                             

1 Thessalonians 1:4: “Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.”

2 Thessalonians 2:13: “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen [elected] you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”                                     

2 Timothy 2:10: “Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory

1 Timothy 1:9: “Who hath saved us, and called [elected] us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.”      

Titus 1:1: “Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness.”

2 Peter 1:2-4: “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the [epi] knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the [epi] knowledge of him that hath called [elected] us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious [escrow] promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Election places all New Testament believers into a place of equality, a position where all spiritual blessing in heavenly places are reserved for each and every child of God. Not all believers experience their blessings in time [during their time on earth], and so they remain unclaimed.

By means of election, God in eternity past places all believers into a predetermined plan for life. This is referred to as “predestination”. We are elected and predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, which means a life where the filling of the Spirit is the norm and the fruit of the Spirit characterizes the life.

Election by Foreknowledge

1 Peter 1:1-9

1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,

2. who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

3. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4. and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you,

5. who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

6. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

7. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.

8. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,

9. for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

This is one of my favourite passages of scripture for it always amazes me how much knowledge the Spirit was able to inspire in such a few words.

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect...”

Who are God’s elect?

The very next verse gives us the answer: “To God’s elect … who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father … through the sanctifying work of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood …” Those who have obeyed the call of the gospel of Jesus Christ and believed unto the salvation of their souls; these are God’s elect.

                             

Before we go further with this passage, it will be of benefit to look at one aspect of God’s character: the omniscience of God. It is a characteristic of Deity, for it is absolute knowledge: knowledge without limitation, and without defect.

There is nothing knowable that God does not know, and He knows even the alternatives. If we limit God’s knowledge because of our own limitations, we place a boundary upon God; we make God in the image of finite man.

But God is eternal, His omniscience is eternal and there is nothing in time or eternity of which God is ignorant. The future is as clear to God as the past, for all of time is compassed by eternity.  God is the eternal God and is therefore able to know future events: “... for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My purpose shall stand, and I will fulfil my intention’” (Isaiah 46:9-10). The current fulfilment of Biblical prophecy proves this to be so.

If, in eternity past, God knew the future, then God must have known our future. If He has known our future from eternity past, then it stands to reason that He knew the day we accepted Christ as Saviour. God’s omniscience allowed Him to know of our conversion in eternity past. He in truth, had foreknowledge of this historical fact.

Therefore, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, we have been elected, chosen “through the sanctifying work of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood …”

    

We are told in John 6:44: “No-one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.”  This is true but just as the believer can grieve or quench the Spirit so do most of mankind reject his voice. 

It is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit that draws us into obedience to Jesus Christ and sets us apart for forgiveness through the blood of Christ.

The fact of our election in eternity past, the fact that we were predestined, that we were called, that we were justified, that we have been glorified, all in eternity past, is proof of the perfection of God’s knowledge. The certainty of our calling and election, however, is dependent on all the ramifications of history being settled and unshakeable, not just our part in it, but the history of all men in every age. Out of all the alternatives God’s decree settled what would be into a factual history, and that history included knowledge of our acceptance of Christ, and our election due to God’s foreknowledge of our acceptance of Christ.

God saw and decreed that history would run its course and that we would have our part in it, as elect, as chosen, as set apart for salvation, all according to his foreknowledge.

To answer a question subsequent to this regarding the non-elect and which might help, I would point you to another of my blogs:

2015 October  The Hardening of Pharaoh's Heart

And what is this salvation?

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Almighty God, righteous and just in all His ways, will not and cannot lower His standards to accommodate imperfect men. His perfect justice demands that all sin be judged. His perfect love “gave His only begotten Son” to bear that judgement on the Cross.

It is because of God’s love and His mercy that we are given this new birth, this spiritual regeneration through faith in Jesus Christ, and it is by means of this new birth that we enter into a living hope: that hope which is founded and established on the fact of Christ’s resurrection.

I will not attempt to prove the resurrection. The Apostles wrote that it occurred, God’s Word affirms the testimony of eyewitnesses, and those of us who have been born again have the testimony of God’s Spirit within. I will, however, quote one secular testimony.

John Singleton Copley, better known as Lord Lyndhurst, was the Solicitor General of Britain in 1819, attorney general in 1824, three times High Chancellor of England, and elected in 1846 High Steward of the university of Cambridge; a man who held in one lifetime the highest offices which a judge in Great Britain could have conferred upon him. He wrote, very simply, “I know pretty well what evidence is; and I tell you, such evidence as that for the Resurrection (of Christ) has not broken down yet.”

We have this living hope because we have a resurrected Saviour; our salvation is dependent on our relationship to Him: At our conversion we gain a relationship and are indwelt by Him through the Spirit. “Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit” (1 John 4:13)

During our life, He sustains that relationship, for we are kept by God’s just and holy word. “For the Lord loves justice, and forsakes not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off” (Psalms 37:28).

And then, at the return of our Lord our relationship will be consummated when we experience the redemption of our bodies: “And not only they [creation], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23).

Our salvation began the moment we believed in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It will be complete when the trump of God shall sound and the dead in Christ will be raised incorruptible and we who are alive and remain to that day will be changed from mortality to immortality (1 Corinthians 15:51-55).

Our inheritance is reserved for us in Heaven, an inheritance that can never perish, never spoil and never fade and it is the Spirit of God who bears witness with our spirit that this is so. For He is our comforter and makes us know that we are the children of God: And if we are God’s children, then we are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:16-17).

The inheritance is ours because we have become God’s children.

Jesus of Nazareth, Almighty God come in the flesh, is He “who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God, by his resurrection from the dead.” This Jesus is in heaven seated at the right hand of God to ever make intercession for us, and those of us who have been drawn to the Father, Christ will raise up at the last day.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”

“In these things you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith, of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire, your faith may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

                        

The apostles Paul and James write of these trials and encourage us with the results of their own experience: Paul in Romans Chapter 5 says: “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."

James writes: “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

James is telling us that if we learn the secrets of patience, we will be perfect and whole, wanting nothing. Paul is saying that if we learn the secrets of patience we will not be ashamed. We will have no reason for further shame in this life and we will not be ashamed at the judgement seat of Christ. Why? Because by patience, we will display in silent action a love for the brethren and our fellow man; we will fulfill His commandment.

Patience is humility, knowing that “God is in all things working them together for our good” and accepting as His lot for us the trials and tribulation of life.

Patience is allowing new believers to grow into the knowledge and grace of Christ, without reacting to their growing pains. It is gentleness and an understanding of the sins and the ignorance of others.

    

Patience has none of the arrogance of egotism. It will not bruise the spirits of the brethren by a hasty or ill-timed word.

To quote the apostle James again: “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.” And again: “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.” And again: “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”

James is very tough, but he is speaking of the “old man”, that old nature from which comes envy, jealousy, malice and pride. It is this “old man” that cannot tame the tongue and indeed, does not want to, but in 1 Peter 3:10, :For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.”

And this, according to the word of God, will be the case if patience is allowed to produce her perfect work in us. It will bring us to the point where the “love of God will be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us.”                                         

And this love is patient, this love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. This love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.

The lack of perseverance toward the trials and the heartaches of life will embitter the subjective Christian, but the one who presses on, knowing the Word of God, will be refined as precious metal is refined, and will reap the rewards of such cleansing. The pure ore of righteousness remains after the unrighteousness of the flesh is sloughed away.

As the Word of God permeates our heart, mind and soul, so the love of God our Saviour will be revealed in all its beauty and He will become our dearest friend, “we love Him because He first loved us.”

              

“… and though we have not seen him, we love him; and even though we do not see him now, we believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for now we are receiving the goal of our faith, the salvation of our souls.”

As our knowledge of God increases – and I am not speaking of an academic understanding of Bible verses or theological doctrines, I am speaking of a personal living relationship with the God of creation – a Father/child relationship where we can, as it were, look up into His face and make our requests known, then – and only then – can we tell Him we love Him and know that our hearts do not lie.

As our knowledge of God increases, we will experience more and more that inexpressible and glorious joy and know that in this we are experiencing, even in this life, the salvation of our souls.